Not Emraan, Akshay Kumar to play Dawood!

By Hindustan Times

After a spate of comedies, Akshay Kumar is going back to his action avatar. He will play the lead role in Ekta Kapoor's Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai sequel, which will be directed by Milan Luthria again. Buzz is that Khiladi Kumar has already met with the makers of film to discuss his role at length.

While the original film traced the life of Haji Mastan, the sequel will be about the rise of Dawood Ibrahim. It is believed that the sequel will be an action packed film with a thriller angle, Mumbai Mirror reported.

Akshay will pick up from where Emraan Hashmi, who played the young Dawood in the original film, left off.

A source told the tabloid, "The original focused on the rivalry between Haji Mastan (Ajay Devgn's character was called Sultan) and Dawood (Emraan's character was called Shoaib). Since Sultan dies in the end, the second part will focus on how Shoaib makes an empire around his name."

Since both Ajay and Emraan will not be a part of the sequel, it is possible that the film will see a fresh story all together.

"Ekta is considering the option of having a completely new script, with no relation to the first film."

Buzz is that Akshay alone will not rule the roost in the film. The film will also star another actor in the lead role who will play Akshay's rival in the film.